Back in March, I wrote about the problems debate organizers were having in deciding which candidates to invite and which to exclude.

Then, in June, when the New York City Campaign Finance Board announced the schedule for the official (and mandatory) debates, I wrote about the criteria candidates needed to meet in order to be invited, entailing a minimum threshold in fund-raising and public polling.

Today, the Times argues in an editorial that former councilman Sal Albanese should be invited to the upcoming televised debate, even though he didn't meet the fund-raising requirement.

Albanese said organizers have violated their own rules on other occasions, first by inviting Weiner before he formally declared his candidacy, then by allowing John Liu to participate, even though he's blocked from getting matching funds from the NYCCFB. (An NYCCFB spokesman told me decisions about giving matching funds are unrelated to debate invitations.)

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Albanese came in third in the Democratic primary when he ran for mayor in 1997 (behind Al Sharpton and Ruth Messinger), and has gotten far less attention this time around.

The Times suggests that if organizers need to make room for Albanese, who "has been a thoughtful contributor to this long, lively campaign," they should drop Anthony Weiner.

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